Phillips disappointed in team’s preparation for preseason opener

The biggest news to come out of Wade Phillips’ briefing following today’s brief walkthrough at the Alamodome was that he was disappointed in how the team approached Tuesday’s practice.

The Cowboys open the preseason Thursday night in Oakland.

“We’ve addressed that,” Phillips said. “It’s a great opportunity for a lot of these guys and our veterans too; our guys that can play need to get ready to play. Even if they’re going to play a limited amount of time, they need to get ready to play. If we had played yesterday we wouldn’t have done very well, so it will be interesting to see how we do in the ballgame itself.”

Phillips didn’t elaborate when asked why the team wouldn’t be mentally sharp just days away from its preseason opener.

“We discussed those things, and I thought they were better today as far as their attitude going in. But for whatever reason I just didn’t think we had a good practice (Tuesday),” Phillips said. “It was an opportunity to step forward a little bit and get ready to play and we weren’t ready to play.

“Like I said I’m glad we weren’t playing yesterday because we wouldn’t have done very well in my opinion.”